Fable: The Return Chapter 30
The King and crew of The Drakemouth make their way across the Ice Pack towards the Northern Wastes. Chapter 30 The battle with the kraken took its toll on everyone in the company. Several pirates perished in the fight, many more were injured. Henry suffered several cuts and bruises, Reaver was cold but now seems completely fine, and the King has been in a trance-like state every since he awoke. He has spoken to no one and only stared blankly outward. The problem that stood before the crew immediately after the battle was that the Drakemouth was laying at a 45 degree angle on a thick slab of ice. The hull was heavily damaged, the sails torn, and the steam engines destroyed. Reaver made the immediate decision that the crew would walk the rest of the way, with a few members of the crew carrying a lifeboat for transport from the edge of the ice to the shores. After Reaver had gotten a new balverine pelt from the ruins of the ship, they set off for the Northern Wastes. Five pirates carry a lifeboat, and two carry the King on a large plank of wood from the ship. The snow falls lightly into the king's unblinking eyes, slowly coating them in a thin film of ice. His body is eventually covered in snow as well, but he cannot feel it. The king is left in an odd state of awake and asleep, seeing and hearing the world around him but not being able to make a move or sound. To the rest of the world he is a dead man with a steady heart beat. But to himself, the king is a pair of eyes watching his own body be buried in ice. As the company of pirates and Heroes grew silent, the chill of the Northern winds set in. The king lost the feeling of his fingers and feet first, then all of his arms and legs. Now he begins to feel the cold creep into his torso, making his spine freeze like ice. The marching slowed in pace, the men shook in the icy winds, no words were spoken any longer. All the while, Reaver stayed at the front of the men, casually walking with his cane. Morale was broken, the North was giving them one more fight, and it was winning. First it was the pirates of the ice, then the kraken, and now the wind and snow was the final defense put in place so long ago. Before the snow could plunge the king's vision into darkness, he felt his body fall. The pirate carrying him from his upper body had dropped his side of the wooden plank into the snow. The pirate lets out a grunt of pain, at this all of the pirates including Reaver turn around to face him. "I'm not carrying his royal arse anymore! It's bloody cold out 'ere and me hands are freezing to the board! He may be younger than he used t' be but he ain't any lighter!" Reaver casually walks towards him and comes very close. He leans in and whispers into the disgruntled pirate's ear. "I don't care." He then comes out and speaks at a louder tone so everyone can hear. "Tell me, do I ever care at all for the feelings of my workers, hm?" The pirate does not answer. "And tell me this also, do I ever show mercy to a worker who complains?" Still, he does not answer. Reaver stares into his eyes, his ever present smirk eating away at the man's already broken spirit. "Since this apparently mute fool will not answer me…someone tell me what I do to my workers when they step out of line, complain, slack off, give me shoddy work, or take a break longer than the allowed three seconds?" Another pirate speaks up from the front of the group, "You shoot them, Captain." "That's right! We have a very smart man towards the front there. And on the matter of three second breaks," Reaver chuckles to himself. "I think you've passed yours." Reaver detaches the black pistol from his cane. The pirate gets on his knees and pleads. "Captain! Please No!" "Ah, it speaks. Good, I like to hear the cries when bullets pass through flesh." "No! I'll carry him alone, Captain! I will, I will! Just…just don't kill me. I…I have a wife and…two kids. They need me, Captain!" "Kill you? I never said anything about killing you." "Yer not going to kill me?" "Oh, bloody no! Of course not." "Th…thank you, Captain. Thank you." Tears fall from the pleading pirate's eyes and freeze to his cheeks. Reaver tips his hat and fires a bullet in the man's right leg. He doubles over in pain, Reaver takes aim and fires at his lower back, shattering the bottom of his spine. The man's cries would not even be drowned by the howl of the Northern winds. The snow beneath him turned red with blood as the pirate sprawled and writhed in pain. "Captain!!" "What?" Reaver says with a laugh. "Ye said ye weren't going t' kill me!" "And I have kept my end of the bargain. I didn't kill you because death would be too easy for the quitting man. Death is deserved by those who earned it through their work. The good workers die quickly and painlessly with one single shot into the cranium. But you," He smiles. Oh, you gave up. So, you don't deserve to die the way you want to because you didn't work the way I wanted you to. We will walk to the North through the cold winds. Your former brethren of my crew will face the cold without fear, without complaint, and they will continue to live. When their usefulness is at an end, they will die quickly and happily, having served a fulfilling life upon my crew and my armada of ships. We will walk but you…you will crawl. You will crawl upon your healthy knee with any feeling you have left in your body. Soon enough, the cold that made you give up on your duties will take your life…slowly." "Captain…my…my children!" "Oh, I'm not your Captain anymore." Reaver hooks his pistol back into the top of his cane and walks back to the front. "Henry! Carry your father, be a good chap." The fallen pirate cries out to all of the men. "No! Don't leave me out here! Don't leave me here to die!" Henry comes towards the back and picks up the side of the plank that the pirate dropped. He and the other man walk quickly to catch up with the moving crew. The crying pirate in the snow grabs on to Henry's boot and hold on tightly. "Don't leave me out here! I'll…I'll die out here!" Henry says nothing to the man and struggles to move his foot. Innevitably, he kicks the man's nose and breaks it in one hit. The man lets go to grab onto his face, more tears stream down and freeze immediately. In desperation, he leaps onto his feet but falls in an instant, his shattered knee collapses underneath his weight. He falls backward onto the ice, making his already broken spine impact the hard, frozen surface. The king's ears tune to the man's cries. Very slowly, the cries fade away and are replaced by the every howling winds. This is the world, this is Reaver's world. Reaver rules over the woking population with an iron fist holding a gun. The king imagines a different world now, one before the people of Albion had created guns. He sees a greener world, one where heroes prosper and the people of Albion are always safe. If ever evil shall rise, it would be brought down by the heroes that watch over the world. But guns, guns changed everything. Guns told the people that heroes were obsolete. Guns brought down the Guild of Heroes. Guns ushered in a new era of Industry that gave Reaver purpose beyond being a pirate. The people found ways to protect themselves within their guns, but they did not realize that they would let something into the world. Heroes were all but extinct, all Gods that people believed in were brought down because the people didn't need them, or so they thought. The king thinks back to he beginning of this terrible story, when the Court were released and they cast people down a dark hole into the Chamber of Fate. He remembers the man who still had faith in the old god, Avo. He told him that even though Avo was proven to be a falsity made by a greedy trader as a ploy for money, he was still a symbol for something greater. He was still a symbol for light within the darkness. But that is what the people tossed away with their pride, their strength, their guns. They did not realize that something would seep into the world when the Albion of old was thrown away in one triumphant moment. It is different than what people think of when they hear it, no longer is it a physical entity. It is in everyone, and it was awoken when the last Heroes fell into the ashes. It permeates the mind, covers the world, progresses the world in its own desires. Where can light be found in this world? Where is is the light in this…Darkness?